Smiling Friends has been praised for not only its comedy but for its positive message and themes of optimism. It's a far cry from most modern adult cartoons in the best way possible.
General
- Anytime a client smiles.
- A cute detail is how there's usually a musical buildup and chime when they do smile.
- The simple goal of the Smiling Friends company: to make people smile.
- In spite of his creepy behaviors and appearance, Mr. Boss is a nice, caring employer to his workers. Not to mention very good at his job since the company's worth billions of dollars and he seems to be the CEO.
- Pim is just one big ball of optimism and by far the most enthusiastic about his job at Smiling Friends as he always tries his best for his clients to smile.
- In spite of the unsettling and sometimes horrific situations he finds himself in, it's not enough to diminish his positive outlook on life, at least not for too long.
- How the main cast interacts with each other makes you feel that they do see each other as friends and care about one another, another thing modern adult animated shows fail to show as friends are often written to be abusive or manipulative, for the expense of comedy.
Season One
Desmond's Big Day Out
- After Pim gets insulted for his age at the party, Charlie comforts him by essentially saying that getting old is just part of life and they have to accept it, with even the suicidal Desmond agreeing with him.
- While he develops Blood Knight tendencies, Desmond finds his purpose in life; becoming a bliblie exterminator.
- Charlie comforts him by assuring him that shooting the bliblie was something that had to be done.
- Note that Desmond actively steps forward in front of Charlie and Pim to intercept the bliblie charging at them all. Suicidal as he may have been, he held no hesitation in protecting the two guys who simply wanted to help him smile.
- Alan gets his cheese back and playfully bites Charlie's nose.
- Despite its abrupt appearance, the alien coming out of the Television Portal at the very end to cheerfully thank the viewers for watching the episode is very sweet, especially with the onscreen text that accompanies the alien's arrival.hello thank you for watching :-)
Mr. Frog
- Glep's downright adorable smile and equally cute dance he does upon landing the role of the new Mr. Frog.
Shrimp's Odyssey
- The montage of Pim imagining himself falling in love with Shrimpina, getting married, starting a family, becoming grandparents, and passing away peacefully together with a smile on their faces after a long, fulfilling, life filled with happiness is surprisingly touching and heartfelt for a surreal and absurd show to the point where the jokes in it, such as Pim's children being super fast and the screaming duck are unable to detract from how genuinely touching it is, especially due to the incredibly moving cover of Raymond Lauchengco's song, So It's You sung by Jason Paige that plays over it.
- Despite the amount of pain he unintentionally puts Shrimp through, Charlie displays a lot of sympathy for his situation even offering to buy him a drink to make up for not being able to get him back together with Shrimpina.
- Pim ultimately decides to do right by Shrimp by introducing him to Shrimpina...even though her actual name is Jennifer and he went to the wrong store.
- While he doesn't get Shrimpina back, Shrimp scores Jennifer by being himself.
A Silly Halloween Special
- Pim's brief song while picking up twigs that's capped off by a bird whistling the tune. Said bird even gets kissed by Pim!
- It's short-lived, but Pim tries to make the best of his situation of being stranded in an abandoned, rundown shack by picturing his future wife and kids living inside.
- While the situation quickly escalates into violence, the Halloween party attendees make it immediately clear that they have zero tolerance for racism when they mistake the Forest Demon's appearance for Blackface.
- And when the crowd degenerates into mauling and then eating the demon, Pim, Charlie, Charlie's girlfriend(?), Alan, Glep, and Glep's girlfriend(?) don't join in, but, sans Charlie, look on in horror, seeing that as going way too far.
Who Violently Murdered Simon S. Salty?
- Despite Salt & Pepper being Sickening Sweethearts, Charlie genuinely shows support for their relationship after the two of them admit they snuck away from their day shift to kiss in the closet.Charlie: Alright, noted. Um, that's just straight up beautiful, by the way.
- The fact that Charlie of all people kept his promise of fulfilling Century egg's dying wish of burying his body in a forest near Changbai in China, especially when it seemed at first that he was just promising so to get his videotapes while not really meaning to actually commit to it.Alan: Did we had to come all the way to China to do this?
Charlie: It's what the egg wanted, Alan.
Enchanted Forest
- In a flashback, when a young Pim asks his dad if they could go into the Enchanted Forest, instead of shutting him out or demeaning him, his dad explains that the forest is for "heroes with unrelenting dedication, bravery, and wisdom." Not only is this a great take on the old "young version of main character is insulted for his wishes" scenario, but it shows how Pim's father is a great parent by encouraging him to be the best version of himself through telling him to work hard for his dreams.
- This is especially heartwarming when you consider how he was in the pilot. Perhaps they're taking him a more uplifting direction?
- Alan calling the hospital after Charlie gets sick from drinking Mip's potion despite his denial in an attempt at saving face. It once again shows how much these guys care for each other.
Frowning Friends
- Charlie & Pim trying to cheer up 3D Squelton due to how the normally cynical and mildly standoffish Charlie tenderly asks the lil' 3D fella, if there's anything that makes him feel better, causing Squelton to respond that he likes balloons, causing Charlie to suggest that he start making them for a living, which genuinely cheers him up and causes him to make an oddly adorable smile. Too bad Grim and Gnarly come by to ruin it.
- Even though their whole purpose is to embody negativity and spread misery, Grim and Gnarly both openly say that they love each other.
- Despite threatening them with the M-16, The Boss reassures a terrified Grim that he was impressed by the success of their business enough that he went crazy from losing $2.4 billion. This causes Grim and Gnarly to smile.
Charlie Dies and Doesn't Come Back
- Jeremy comforts the tubby imp after all his attempts to intimidate Charlie fail.
- Charlie's interactions with his doting grandmother. She calls his attention by calling him her "beautiful grandson" and offers him hard candy before he leaves. Charlie in turn says he considers it unreasonable that she was sent to hell just for saying "Damn!" in 1958 and is overall very polite to her even when turning down her offer, thanking her for the consideration.
- Charlie's interaction with one of the damned souls is a small one, as he wants to apologize to him due to being unable to think of anything to say, only for him to comfort the soul and assure him that he doesn't need to feel bad for that.Damned Soul: I'm sorry, I couldn't think of anything to say.
Charlie: Naw, there's no pressure man, it's all good. You didn't- You didn't have to say anything. - Sure he's the Prince of Darkness, but even Satan acts polite to the food delivery man and is sympathetic when the worker says that he was confused about where the address was.
- The fact Charlie agrees to help Satan of all people smile is quite something. Sure, it was under the agreement that he'd be brought back to life if he succeeded and the Devil, being the Devil, backs away from their deal in the end. But you have to admire Charlie for putting a conscious effort to helping him.
- The second Charlie is brought back to life, Pim apologizes to him for the argument they had and hugs him.
The Smiling Friends go to Brazil
- After spending a good chunk of the episode bickering over who was supposed to book for the hotel for them to stay, Pim apologizing over all the hotels being booked for Mardi Gras, thus Charlie and Alan reassure that everything's fine and they just picked a bad time to go.
- A small blink-and-you-miss-it example but the way Glep was eating the fries while the boys try to hash out a solution was an adorable easter egg.
Season Two
Gwimbly: Definitive Remastered Enhanced Extended Edition DX 4K (Anniversary Director's Cut)
- Gwimbly, having grown apart from or outlived his old co-stars, choosing to befriend Troglor to help him through his own rough patch after the death of his CEO. Its then that Troglor gets the idea to start a Mascot Fighter with Gwimbly and other IGBG characters to give everyone the spotlight they deserve.
- Charlie and Pim go out of their way to help Gwimbly sit on the ground when the second time he did his iconic dance took a number out of him.
- Despite treating him horribly throughout the episode, the stinger reveals James was genuinely grateful towards Charlie for his efforts in making him smile and berates himself for pushing him away.
